A leadership election will be held in the coming weeks to confirm the five as chairs of committees where they are now the senior Democrat. None expect to be challenged.

Control of the gavel will give them the power to investigate, hire at least 30 new staff members each and control the House’s policy agenda. Two members who will very likely receive media attention over the next two months in the lead-up to the start of the new Congress in January 2019 are Waters and Cummings.

Waters has been a leading critic of the Trump administration. She has been vocal not only against Trump’s policies but has led pushback on fiscal policies that impact millions of Americans.

With the power of the gavel as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Cummings will be able to subpoena administration officials. It will likely be a long two years as the 2020 campaign is discussed more vocally now that the 2018 campaign is over.

There is also likely to be at least nine new members of the CBC, Congress’ largest caucus.